Guestbook

Post a Comment

Oops!

Oops!

155 Comments

July is nearly over, and I've just realized no Mabel and Charlie films were released in this month in 1914. I've been trawling the internet for more details on Charlie and Mabel as a pair. Everyone seems obsessed with Mack and Mabel, but i have just found a series of blogs on wordpress.com going into the relationship between Chas and Mabel.It's titled 'THE CHARLIE & MABEL STORY: How Screen Comedy Grew Up' Parts I to IV. Puts a different slant on what went on at Mack's Madhouse Studio.

I fell down a rabbit-hole the other evening regarding William Desmond Taylor and his unsolved case. In all my surfing of his sad mystery I stumbled upon the story of your Mabel -- thank you for creating this website dedicated to Mabel Normand -- it is truly wonderful to explore -- especially the photographs of old Los Angeles and your heroine and others of the silent era. It is a nice bit of wonderland.

I enjoyed reading the page about Mabel’s motorcycles. As well as the Indian there is a picture of a V–twin motorcycle that someone, I believe, has identified as a Flying Merkel. The Flying Merkel and Indian do have another (sort of) link with Mabel and ‘Mabel At The Wheel’ in that the company which produced Chaplin’s Thor IV motorcycle started in business making parts for Flying Merkel and Indian (including complete engines for the latter). If anyone is interested there is a video of a circa 1912 Thor engine being rebuilt by a couple of guys on YouTube. In another video, a Thor is shown in action. Although the cycle seems serene enough on silent film, the noise is actually horrendous! Furthermore, the hot exhaust gasses would have been vented towards Mabel’s right foot, even if a silencer was fitted (I can’t see that the Chaplin example was actually fitted with one). The precarious-looking passenger seat was an accessory. It is worth noting that all the photos of Mabel with the Indian show the machine on a stand, even when Jack Pickford is represented as the pilot. I believe the Indian belonged to Claude Normand (bought by Mabel perhaps?). Does anyone know if Mabel herself ever actually rode a motorcycle? A motorcycle would definitely have NOT been suitable for negotiating Edendale’s unpaved, muddy roads while wearing furs, dripping with diamonds, and a poke bonnet for head protection. Incidentally, Jack and Mabel seem very cosy sitting on the Indian, as indeed they were at Biograph, Goldwyn’s, and in an English comic-strip that can be seen on this site (I presume that the Jack illustrated is Jack Pickford).

Mabel Normand wrote a whole series of these silly letters. She said that she was sending them to "put a smile" on the faces of very busy important men. TheIMPORTANT men, like Zukor. The letter was found in a personal papers of Zukor; so we know that he kept it. The description of the girl sending the letter is COMICAL - fine-thin-fuzzt hair, no chin, very tall, pale eyes, etc. You should read it in the spirit of hilarious farce as she intended.

MOLLY O' was the Christmas success and she was working on SUZANNA in February 1922. When the comic letter was written, Mabel was planning a trip to Europe. The Sennett Studios was waiting for her return to make more feature movies (MARY ANN and THE EXTRA GIRL).

I find the whole WDT case is in the realm of "recrearional thinking" it exists because it is a mystery, even if it were solved there will always be those that will find a constancy theory - (the grassy knoll or wind blowing the flag on the moon). The fascinations is not with the murder, it is the ubsolved murder.

Kel Boyce says...

Having recently discovered Marilyn’s site, I was intrigued to find Mabel’s letter to Adolph Zukor among its pages. This is my take on Mabel’s scribings:

Mabel’s letter seems more impertinent than usual, and with good reason. Mabel felt she had been sacrificed following the W.D.Taylor murder, in order to protect Zukor’s big star Mary Miles Minter. The application for a job reflects the fact that Taylor had been unable, or unwilling, to get Mabel employed at Zukor’s studio. She seems to imply that Taylor was one of Zukor’s ‘temperamental directors’, and Mabel does not seem to have been impressed by Zukor’s flowers (according to Mack Sennett, Mabel had once threatened to ‘brain’ him and Zukor with a heavy book).

In Mabel’s description of herself, she refers to Syd Graumann who was an ally of Zukor, and much to Mabel’s annoyance, the first to ban Arbuckle’s films in 1921 (‘If I had ‘mad ‘ hair like Graumann would I be your friend too?’ she seems to say). The local theatre- owner she refers to is clearly Graumann. Mabel’s claim to be 7’ 9’’ inches tall, with bobbed hair is evidently a jibe at the new studio practice of casting more slender, taller-looking flappers.

The other Syd cited, Cohen, was leader of the independent exhibitors that were in a legal war with Zukor. With a bit of luck Zukor will get a bloody nose, thinks Mabel.

Having recently discovered Marilyn’s site, I was intrigued to find Mabel’s letter to Adolph Zukor among its pages. This is my take on Mabel’s scribings:

Mabel’s letter seems more impertinent than usual, and with good reason. Mabel felt she had been sacrificed following the W.D.Taylor murder, in order to protect Zukor’s big star Mary Miles Minter. The application for a job reflects the fact that Taylor had been unable, or unwilling, to get Mabel employed at Zukor’s studio. She seems to imply that Taylor was one of Zukor’s ‘temperamental directors’, and Mabel does not seem to have been impressed by Zukor’s flowers (according to Mack Sennett, Mabel had once threatened to ‘brain’ him and Zukor with a heavy book).

In Mabel’s description of herself, she refers to Syd Graumann who was an ally of Zukor, and much to Mabel’s annoyance, the first to ban Arbuckle’s films in 1921 (‘If I had ‘mad ‘ hair like Graumann would I be your friend too?’ she seems to say). The local theatre- owner she refers to is clearly Graumann. Mabel’s claim to be 7’ 9’’ inches tall, with bobbed hair is evidently a jibe at the new studio practice of casting more slender, taller-looking flappers.

The other Syd cited, Cohen, was leader of the independent exhibitors that were in a legal war with Zukor. With a bit of luck Zukor will get a bloody nose, thinks Mabel.

A great site - lots of interesting stuff. It's strange (in a good way) how people love Mabel and feel protective towards her, even today. Her art and magic come from her own emotions that bubble to the surface in her films. I seem to remember reading that Louise Brooks said of herself that she could have been a great actress, if she had only been able to put her own emotions into her screen characters. Mabel had no such problems, and I doubt that she adhered strictly to her scripts, even in the Sennett features.